A MAN CALLED SLEDGE
Italy, 1970, 93 minutes, Colour.
James Garner, Dennis Weaver, Claude Akins, John Marley, Laura Antonelli, Laura Betti.
Directed by Vic Morrow.
A Man Called Sledge is an upmarket spaghetti western with an above-average cast. During the 1960s, James Garner had projected a very genial image, even in such action films as The Great Escape. At this time he appeared, most genially, in Support Your Local Sheriff and Support Your Local Gunfighter. However, in this film he portrays a brutal robber, organising a theft of gold from a prison. He has strong support from American character actors as well as two Italian actresses, Laura Antonelli and Laura Betti. The film was directed by Vic Morrow, better known as an actor.
1. The significance of the title with its emphasis on Sledge? James Garner in the role? A hero, a villain, both? Was this a good Western?
2. What conventions of Westerns did the film use, the criminal band, the lure of gold, the plan, its execution, vengeance and murders? The outcome? How different from the conventional Western?
3. The importance of wide screen colour photography, the Western locations, town and desert, the prison? The musical background and its atmosphere?
4. Comment on the special effects, especially in the robbery and the siege.
5. How conventional a plot? The conventional band of criminals in the desert, their motivation? The plan and the lure of gold? The originality of their plan to get the gold? Its execution and the excitement? Sledge and his killing of his accomplices? The playing cards and the vengeance, the collage of images during these games of chance? What did the moralizing song about the gold add to the film? Did it really turn it into a parable and a symbol of greed?
6. How credible a character was Sledge? The credit sequences and presenting him as a character of the West, his violence, his relationship with Ria? His friendship with his men, the confrontation with the old man and his harshness with him? His dependence on Ward for the execution of the plan? His ruthlessness? His playing off the men against each other? What had he gained at the end? Was there any development of character?
7. The development of character in the minor roles: Ward and his support of Sledge, his acting the part of the Sheriff with all its dangers in the prison, his helping him in the robbery, his death? Hooker and Ripley as ordinary accomplices, greedy? The old man and his greed, his boasting about his memories, a devil figure tempting Sledge to robbery, a weak figure in tears especially during the siege, his being imprisoned, remembering the combination? The revelation of his evil during the card games, the final confrontation with Sledge? The ugliness of the accomplices' plot to rape Ria and use her as a bait for trapping Sledge? Audience reactions to this kind of character?
8. How well planned was the robbery, how exciting its execution, the build-up of details, the violence, the opening of the safe, the massacre as they escaped? The crisis of their being besieged?
9. Was the film in any way memorable? How good an exploration of themes of good and evil, greedy, the lust for gold, man's cruelty to man? Was Sledge meant to be a hero?
